So it’s been a month since my last post. I apologize for that. Work and school has been hectic. But I had today off so you get a new entry.

Being October in New England it’s starting to get the nip in the air of autumn. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons, it’s nice and cool with out it being freezing. It’s perfect. One of my favorite Autumn and winter flavors happens to be mint, especially with chocolate. So when I discovered this tea I was ecstatic. It’s a cacao mint tea. Cacao is the bean chocolate is from. it’s a gorgeous blend of mint and chocolate in a black tea.

And from that tea comes brownies. This recipe is from my moms recipe box it is originally adapted from New farm veg. I believe that is a magazine but I’m not sure, the recipe is from years ago.

Combine 1/3 cups flour and tea in a small sauce pan. Cook over low heat until thickened about 3 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl. Set aside, cool completely. Melt margarine in a sauce pan and add cocoa. Cook and stir over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl. Add sugar, vanilla and salt to flour mixture and beat until smooth. Add cocoa mixture beat until combined.
Combine 1 1/2 cups flour and baking powder in a small bowl. Add to batter and mix until smooth.
Spoon batter into an ungreased 10″ square pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean about 45 minutes. Cool completely.

These brownies come out very cake-y if you want more fudge-y ones cook for a little less. Also the mint is super subtle almost non existent, even though in the tea itself it is strong. Next time I’ll add a drop of mint extract as well.

I love blueberries. They are one of my favorite fruit. So when I came across this delicious blueberry roobios tea I was hooked. Roobios tea is a caffeine free tea so anyone allergic to caffeine can drink it. Which is nice, after being a coffee drinker for so long I try to stay away from a lot of caffeine so drinking this one later in the day is a nice change of pace.

Anyways back to blueberries, I remember being a kid and going to my friends house who had blueberry bushes in her backyard and picking blueberries. I loved going and picking blueberries and eating them straight off the bush. So fresh so sweet.

So I am not a green tea fan. In my first recipe I did use a blackberry mint green tea, but that is pretty much the only one I drink. I try my hardest to like green tea but something about it turns me off. So imagine my bafflement when I received some straight green tea in my tea of the month package. According to the old list of what comes each month, I was only supposed to receive two greens teas, the blackberry mint and a jasmine one. The one I got was a straight high quality Japanese green tea. I had no clue what to do with it. Besides the fact I am not a fan, it is finicky. It only steeps for 30 seconds and even if you steep it 3 seconds to long it gets bitters.

What is a non green tea fan going to do?
Make faux fraps.

So this is what I put in mine, you can obviously use whatever fruits you like.

First add the banana, green tea, and some of the milk to the blender and blend.
After it is fully blended add the blueberries, yogurt and peanut butter.
Blend until smooth, drizzle the rest of the milk in until it gets to the constancy you like.
Once done pour into cup and enjoy.

For this installment I made Vanilla Earl Grey cookies. Vanilla earl grey is a real tea, it’s not flavored with extract to make it. It is called different things depending on where you are, anything from lady earl grey to earl grey creme.

The cookies where the hardest to figure out how to make. The reason being a lot of cookie recipes don’t have milk in it, so subbing tea for milk wasn’t an option.

While thumbing through it I came across there Crispy Green Tea cookie recipe. While reading it, I thought it was interesting. And it even suggested to try using earl grey for a more earth flavor. A bell basically went off in my head saying I should try it. So here it is.

They grind up there tea leaves, if you can get already ground that would work as well. If you need to grind it and don’t have a coffee grinder, or mortar and pestle do what I did, put the tea in a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to crush the leaves.

With a mixer or by hand, cream together the Earth Balance® Buttery Spread, sugar, vanilla extract and maple syrup.

With a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder, grind tea into a fine powder. Add tea into mixture. Slowly incorporate flours and sea salt. Do not overmix.

Place dough on a generously floured board and roll with a rolling pin until about 1/8 inch thick. If dough sticks to cutting board or rolling pin, use more flour and rub it directly on board or rolling pin.

Using a cookie cutter of any shape, press into dough. Place formed cookies on a greased cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat (or use cooking spray).

Cool completely on a cooling rack and store in a metal tin for up to 2 weeks. Cookies stored in plastic will lose their crunch.

So I have seem to lost my pictures of the cookies I made. Which kind of sucks, but who knows they are probably on my computer somewhere. I’ll defiantly be making these again and I’ll make sure the pictures are uploaded right after I do.

Hello and welcome.
For my first entry I will be making Blackberry Mint Cupcakes.
So this whole blog is about baking with tea. Tea is a way of life in some cultures. It tastes amazing and because of Doctor Oz everyone is getting on the tea kick.

When you look up baking with tea most recipes use a delicious green tea powder called Matcha. Matcha is basically just a basic green tea ground into powder. It is used for Japanese tea ceremonies. Now I do love a good Vanilla Almond Milk Matcha latte but it was depressing seeing only that tea being used when there are so many other delicious teas.

One of my favorite teas is a Blackberry Mint Green tea, and that is the tea used in this recipe.
I drink this tea daily a cup or two a day. I have a huge ice tea pitcher and I make this tea every other week. It’s always on hand at my house. It has a sweet and tart flavor that masks the green tea flavor, so if you aren’t normally a green tea fan you will like this.

I brought these to my work and everyone raved on them. My manager was mad that the assistant brought them home with her. Because he was going to eat some when he came to work the next day.

Basically in my recipes I use tea instead of the milk. So it’s a really simple change. The base of most my recipes come from Isa Chandra.

Whisk the soy milk and vinegar in a measuring cup and set aside for a few minutes to get good and curdled.

If using margarine: Sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl and mix.

In a separate large bowl, use a handheld mixer at medium speed to cream the margarine and sugar for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy. (Don’t beat past 2 minutes.) Beat in the vanilla and other extract, if using, then alternate beating in the soy milk mixture and dry ingredients, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl a few times.

If using oil: Beat together the soy milk mixture, oil, sugar, vanilla, and other extracts, if using, in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and mix until no large lumps remain.

Fill cupcake liners two-thirds of the way and bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer to a cooling rack, and let cool completely before frosting.

I frosted mine with Isas Chocolate ganche and topped with a blackberry.

Bring the soy milk to a gentle boil in a small sauce pan. Immediately remove from heat and add the chocolate and maple syrup. Use a rubber heatproof spatula to mix the chocolate until it is fully melted and smooth. Set aside at room temperature till ready to use.